Smallville: Green Arrow is Back

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Exclusive: We talk to Justin Hartley about his return to the series and taking on Black Canary.

By Eric Goldman

Justin Hartley was a popular addition to the cast of Smallville in Season 6, thanks to his portrayal of the DC Comics hero Oliver Queen, AKA Green Arrow. During his time on the show we watched as Green Arrow become an ally to Clark Kent (Tom Welling) and romantically involved with Lois Lane (Erica Durance). The last time we saw Hartley on the show, Green Arrow assembled an impressive prototype version of the Justice League, including Cyborg, Aquaman, Impulse and Clark Kent, before departing to take his fight against Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) elsewhere.

This week sees Hartley return to Smallville, as Green Arrow comes back into Clark Kent's life in the episode "Siren." The episode also introduces a new character into the Smallville mythos, Black Canary (Alaina Huffman), who in the comic books is an important longtime romantic interest for Green Arrow.

I spoke to Hartley this week about his return to the series, what it's been like portraying Green Arrow and what the future might hold for the character.

IGN TV: How did it feel returning to Smallville?

Justin Hartley: It was nice. I enjoyed my first stint there. I thought it was great for me and just a lot of fun. To be invited back was flattering and it also cool because this time it was kind of nice to go in there and help introduce a new character. That was kind of fun. I'm into that stuff now! Ever since I did the Aquaman pilot, you do your research through the comic books and through going online and these blogs and basically there are summarizations of what's happened in the comic books. You kind of end up getting involved in it through that, you know what I mean? And so I find myself every once in awhile in a comic book store. Every time I get a chance to go back to Smallville, I absolutely love it. They're great, great people and it's just always good to see them.

Justin Hartley (right, with Tom Welling) returns to Smallville

IGN TV: What brings Oliver back to Smallville?

Hartley: It's pretty clever, the way they did it. One of my concerns was that I thought "Man, how are they going to bring him back without spending half the show talking about where he's been?" Because he's been gone for a year, and you could fall into a trap that way, with just a lot of exposition. A lot of "here's what happened." You're telling a story instead of showing it all of a sudden. But they basically use my relationship with Chloe to explain everything that happened within a minute, and then all of a sudden, boom, we're going from where we should be, which is the present time. So basically what happened was he left on that whole 33.1 crusade to quote-unquote "save the world". It's this whole thing he finds out about Lex Luthor and what he's doing that ends up bringing him back. It's Luthor's latest project that brings him back into the mix.

IGN TV: Obviously in the comics Green Arrow and Black Canary have a very notable relationship. What's their dynamic like when they meet up here?

Hartley: It's interesting, because the first time they meet it's not the friendliest or greatest first impression in the history of the world. She totally misinterprets where he's coming from and he sees her as something she completely ends up not being at all. They both kind of think the other one is the bad guy. And then through three or four meetings I clue her in. She totally has no idea what she's talking about! She's a moron, so I have to clue her in and tell her "You're totally wrong. You have no idea." She basically goes completely off the deep end and I've got to reel her back and save the whole entire story. [Laughs]

Black Canary (Alaina Huffman) finds out why they call him Green Arrow

IGN TV: But that whole time, you're admiring the fishnets, right?

Hartley: Yeah! The Green Arrow is Oliver Queen, dude. He's gonna admire stuff like that, of course. I think Lois probably had a couple pairs that he bought her, I would imagine. Who's not into fishnets?! No matter what you like, you like fishnets, right?

IGN TV: I completely agree.

Hartley: Yeah, come on!

IGN TV: Speaking of Lois, do Oliver and Lois see each other again during "Siren"?

Hartley: Yeah. I love working with Erica (Durance). She's great. I enjoy the scenes that we do and I like her dedication to the scenes. It's also fun to work with someone who's a nice person and you get along with really well. We have at least a couple of really good scenes in there and she talks about what me leaving did to her and Oliver tries to explain to her why he left, because he obviously he can't tell her the truth. It's not really sappy, which is neat. I like that about that relationship. You can have those really intimate, private moments without it being dopey and sappy.